T H E N O R T O N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O
Literature S H O R T E R T H I R T E E N T H E D I T I O N
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T H E N O R T O N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O
S H O R T E R T H I R T E E N T H E D I T I O N
Literature
Kelly J. Mays
B W . W . N O R T O N & C O M P A N Y
N e w Yo r k , L o n d o n
U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E VA D A , L A S V E G A S
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Editor: Sarah Touborg Proj ect Editor: Christine D’Antonio Assistant Editor: Madeline Rombes Manuscript Editor: Rebecca Caine Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson Managing Editor, College Digital Media: Kim Yi Production Man ag ers: Ashley Horna, Stephen Sajdak Media Editor: Carly Fraser Doria Media Editorial Assistants: Alexander Lee, Joshua Bianchi Ebook Production Manager: Danielle Lehmann Marketing Man ag er, Lit er a ture: Kimberly Bowers Media Project Editor: Cooper Wilhelm Design Director: Lissi Sigillo Book Designer: Pamela Schnitter Photo Editor: Ted Szczepanski Photo Research: Julie Tesser Director of College Permissions: Megan Schindel Permissions Clearer: Margaret Gorenstein Composition: Westchester Publishing Services Manufacturing: LSC Communications
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Mays, Kelly J., editor. Title: The Norton introduction to lit er a ture / [edited by] Kelly J. Mays, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Description: Shorter thirteenth edition. | New York : W. W. Norton & Com pany, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018004891 | ISBN 9780393664928 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Lit er a ture— Collections. Classification: LCC PN6014 .N67 2018 | DDC 808.8— dc23
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v
Brief Table of Contents
Preface for Instructors xxviii Introduction 1
PART ONE Fiction 1 Fiction: Reading, Responding, Writing 16
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT 75
2 Plot 75
3 Narration and Point of View 169
4 Character 210
5 Setting 282
6 Symbol and Figurative Language 380
7 Theme 429
EXPLORING CONTEXTS 512
8 The Author’s Work as Context: Flannery O’Connor 512
9 Cultural and Historical Contexts: Women in Turn- of- the- Century Amer i ca 564
10 Critical Contexts: Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” 607
READING MORE FICTION 643
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v i BRIeF TABLe oF CoNTeNTS
PART TWO Poetry 11 Poetry: Reading, Responding, Writing 730
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT 769
12 Speaker: Whose Voice Do We Hear? 769
13 Situation and Setting: What Happens? Where? When? 795
14 Theme and Tone 830
15 Language: Word Choice and Order 854
16 Visual Imagery and Figures of Speech 866
17 Symbol 884
18 The Sounds of Poetry 899
19 Internal Structure 930
20 External Form 951
EXPLORING CONTEXTS 984
21 The Author’s Work as Context: Adrienne Rich 986
22 The Author’s Work as Context: William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience 1055
23 Cultural and Historical Contexts: The Harlem Re nais sance 1065
24 Critical Contexts: Sylvia Plath’s “ Daddy” 1102
READING MORE POETRY 1131
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BRIeF TABLe oF CoNTeNTS v ii
PART THREE Drama 25 Drama: Reading, Responding, Writing 1194
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT 1221
26 Ele ments of Drama 1221
EXPLORING CONTEXTS 1332
27 The Author’s Work as Context: William Shakespeare 1332
28 Cultural and Historical Contexts: Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun 1496
29 Critical Contexts: Sophocles’s Antigone 1600
READING MORE DRAMA 1665
PART FOUR Writing about Lit er a ture 30 Basic Moves: Paraphrase, Summary, Description 1914
31 The Lit er a ture Essay 1918
32 The Writing Pro cess 1938
33 The Lit er a ture Research Essay 1951
34 Quotation, Citation, and Documentation 1962
35 Sample Research Essay 1992
Critical Approaches A1
Permissions Acknowl edgments A27
Index of Authors A45
Index of Titles and First Lines A52
Glossary/Index of Literary Terms A61
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ix
Contents
Preface for Instructors xxviii Introduction 1
What Is Lit er a ture? 1
What Does Lit er a ture Do? 3
John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer 4 What Are the Genres of Lit er a ture? 4
Why Read Lit er a ture? 6
Why Study Lit er a ture? 9
Hai- Dang Phan, My Father’s “Norton Introduction to Lit er a ture,” Third Edition (1981) 10
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Hai- Dang Phan 12
John Crowe Ransom, Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter 13
PART ONE Fiction 1 Fiction: Reading, Responding, Writing 16
anonymous, The Elephant in the Village of the Blind 17 Reading and Responding to Fiction 20 linda brewer, 20/20 20
SAMPLE WRITING: Annotation and Notes on “20/20” 21
Reading and Responding to Graphic Fiction 23 jules feiffer, Superman 23 Writing about Fiction 27 raymond carver, Cathedral 28
SAMPLE WRITING: Reading Notes on “Cathedral” 39
SAMPLE WRITING: Response Paper on “Cathedral” 42
SAMPLE WRITING: Essay on “Cathedral” 45
Telling Stories: An Album 49 grace paley, A Conversation with My Father 50
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Grace Paley 54
anton chekhov, Gooseberries 55 tim o’brien, The Lives of the Dead 63
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x CoNTeNTS
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT 75
2 Plot 75 Plot versus Action, Sequence, and Subplot 75 Pace 76 Conflicts 76 gary trudeau, Doonesbury 77 jacob and wilhelm grimm, The Shroud 77 The Five Parts of Plot 78 Common Plot Types 82 ralph ellison, King of the Bingo Game 83 james baldwin, Sonny’s Blues 91 joyce carol oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You
Been? 114 AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Joyce Carol Oates 126
viet thanh Nguyen, I’d Love You to Want Me 127 SAMPLE WRITING: Essay on “King of the Bingo Game” 141
Initiation Stories: An Album 144 toni cade bambara, The Lesson 146
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Toni Cade Bambara 152
alice munro, Boys and Girls 152 john updike, A & P 163
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: John Updike 168
3 Narration and Point of View 169 Types of Narration 170 Tense 171 Narrator versus Implied Author 171 edgar allan poe, The Cask of Amontillado 173 george saunders, Puppy 179
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: George Saunders 186
virginia woolf, The Mark on the Wall 186 adam johnson, In ter est ing Facts 192
4 Character 210 Heroes and Villains versus Protagonists and Antagonists 211 Major versus Minor Characters 212 Flat versus Round and Static versus Dynamic Characters 212 Stock Characters and Archetypes 213 Reading Character in Fiction and Life 213 william faulkner, Barn Burning 217 toni morrison, Recitatif 230
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CoNTeNTS xi
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Toni Morrison 244
david foster wallace, Good People 245 alissa nutting, Model’s Assistant 250
Monsters: An Album 259 margaret atwood, Lusus Naturae 260 karen russell, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves 265 jorge luis borges, The House of Asterion 277
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Jorge Luis Borges 280
5 Setting 282 Temporal and Physical, General and Par tic u lar Setting 282 Functions of Setting 282 Vague and Vivid Settings 283 italo calvino, from Invisible Cities 284 margaret mitchell, from Gone with the Wind 284 Traditional Expectations of Time and Place 285 alice randall, from The Wind Done Gone 286 james joyce, Araby 288 amy tan, A Pair of Tickets 293 judith ortiz cofer, Volar 306 annie proulx, Job History 308
SAMPLE WRITING: Annotation and Close Reading on “Araby” 314
The Future: An Album 317 william gibson, The Gernsback Continuum 318
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: William Gibson 327
ray bradbury, The Veldt 328 AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Ray Bradbury 339
octavia E. butler, Bloodchild 340 AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Octavia E. Butler 354
jennifer egan, Black Box 355 AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Jennifer Egan 378
6 Symbol and Figurative Language 380 Literary Symbolism 381 Figures of Speech 382 Interpreting Symbolism and Figurative Language 383 nathaniel hawthorne, The Birth- Mark 385 a. s. byatt, The Thing in the Forest 397 edwidge danticat, A Wall of Fire Rising 412
SAMPLE WRITING: Comparative Essay on “The Birth- Mark” and
“The Thing in the Forest” 425
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7 Theme 429 aesop, The Two Crabs 429 Theme(s): Singular or Plural? 430 Be Specific: Theme as Idea versus Topic or Subject 430 Don’t Be Too Specific: Theme as General Idea 431 Theme versus Moral 431 stephen crane, The Open Boat 433 gabriel garcÍa mÁrquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings:
A Tale for Children 451 yasunari kawabata, The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket 456 junot dÍaz, Wildwood 459
Cross- Cultural Encounters: An Album 477 bharati mukherjee, The Management of Grief 478
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Bharati Mukherjee 491
jhumpa lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies 491 AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Jhumpa Lahiri 507
david sedaris, Jesus Shaves 508
EXPLORING CONTEXTS 512
8 The Author’s Work as Context: Flannery O’Connor 512 Biographical Approaches to Lit er a ture 513 Implied Author or Narrator 514 Style and Tone 515 Three Stories by Flannery O’Connor 516 A Good Man Is Hard to Find 516 Good Country People 527 Every thing That Rises Must Converge 540 Passages from Flannery O’Connor’s Essays and Letters 550 Critical Excerpts 554 mary gordon, from Flannery’s Kiss 554 ann e. reuman, from Revolting Fictions: Flannery O’Connor’s
Letter to Her Mother 557 eileen pollack, from Flannery O’Connor and the
New Criticism 560
9 Cultural and Historical Contexts: Women in Turn- of- the- Century Amer i ca 564 Women at the Turn of the Century: An Overview 565 Women Writers in a Changing World 567 kate chopin, The Story of an Hour 568 charlotte perkins gilman, The Yellow Wall paper 571
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CoNTeNTS xiii
susan glaspell, A Jury of Her Peers 582 Contextual Excerpts 599 charlotte perkins gilman, from Similar Cases 599 from Women and Economics 600 barbara boyd, from Heart and Home Talks: Politics and Milk 601 mrs. arthur lyttelton, from Women and Their Work 601 rheta childe dorr, from What Eight Million Women Want 602 The New York Times, from Mrs. Delong Acquitted 603 The Washington Post, from The Chances of Divorce 603 charlotte perkins gilman, from Why I Wrote “The Yellow
Wall - paper” 604 The Washington Post, The Rest Cure 604 The Washington Post, from Egotism of the Rest Cure 604
10 Critical Contexts: Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” 607 tim o’brien, The Things They Carried 609 Critical Excerpts 622 steven kaplan, from The Undying Uncertainty of the Narrator in
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried 622 lorrie n. smith, from “The Things Men Do”: The Gendered Subtext
in Tim O’Brien’s Esquire Stories 627 susan farrell, from Tim O’Brien and Gender: A Defense of
The Things They Carried 637
READING MORE FICTION 643 louise erdrich, Love Medicine 643 william faulkner, A Rose for Emily 658 ernest hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants 665 franz kafka, A Hunger Artist 669 jamaica kincaid, Girl 675 bobbie ann mason, Shiloh 677 guy de maupassant, The Jewelry 687 herman melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street 693 eudora welty, Why I Live at the P.O. 719
PART TWO Poetry 11 Poetry: Reading, Responding, Writing 730
Defining Poetry 731 lydia davis, Head, Heart 732
AUTHORS ON THEIR CR AF T: Billy Collins 733
Poetic Subgenres and Kinds 734
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x iv CoNTeNTS
edwin arlington robinson, Richard Cory 735 robert frost, “Out, Out—” 736 thomas hardy, The Ruined Maid 737 william words worth, I wandered lonely as a cloud 738 frank o’hara, Poem [Lana Turner has collapsed!] 739 phillis wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to Amer i ca 741 emily dickinson, The Sky is low— the Clouds are mean 742 billy collins, Divorce 742 bruce springsteen, Nebraska 743 robert hayden, A Letter from Phillis Wheatley 744 Responding to Poetry 746 aphra behn, On Her Loving Two Equally 746 Writing about Poetry 753
SAMPLE WRITING: Response Paper on “On Her Loving Two Equally” 755
SAMPLE WRITING: Essay on “On Her Loving Two Equally” 757
The Art of (Reading) Poetry: An Album 761 howard nemerov, Because You Asked about the Line between Prose
and Poetry 761 archibald macleish, Ars Poetica 762 czeslaw milosz, Ars Poetica? 763
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Czeslaw Milosz 764
elizabeth alexander, Ars Poetica #100: I Believe 764 marianne moore, Poetry 765 julia alvarez, “Poetry Makes Nothing Happen”? 766 billy collins, Introduction to Poetry 767
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT 769
12 Speaker: Whose Voice Do We Hear? 769 Narrative Poems and Their Speakers 769 etheridge knight, Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital
for the Criminal Insane 769 Speakers in the Dramatic Monologue 771 a. e. stallings, Hades Welcomes His Bride 771 The Lyric and Its Speaker 773 margaret atwood, Death of a Young Son by Drowning 773
AUTHORS ON THEIR CR AF T: Billy Collins and Sharon Olds 775
william words worth, She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways 776 dorothy parker, A Certain Lady 776 Poems for Further Study 777 walt whitman, I celebrate myself, and sing myself 777
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CoNTeNTS xv
langston hughes, Ballad of the Landlord 778 e. e. cummings, next to of course god amer i ca i 779 gwendolyn brooks, We Real Cool 779
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Gwendolyn Brooks 780
lucille clifton, cream of wheat 781 Exploring Gender: An Album 783 richard lovelace, Song: To Lucasta, Going to the Wars 784 mary, lady chudleigh, To the Ladies 784 wilfred owen, Disabled 785 elizabeth bishop, Exchanging Hats 786 david wagoner, My Father’s Garden 787 judith ortiz cofer, The Changeling 788 marie howe, Practicing 789
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Marie Howe 790
bob hicok, O my pa- pa 791 terrance hayes, Mr. T— 792 stacey waite, The Kind of Man I Am at the DMV 793
13 Situation and Setting: What Happens? Where? When? 795 Situation 796 rita dove, Daystar 796 denise duhamel, Humanity 101 797 tracy k. smith, Sci- Fi 798 Setting 799 matthew arnold, Dover Beach 799 One Poem, Multiple Situations and Settings 801 li- young lee, Persimmons 801 One Situation and Setting, Multiple Poems 803 christopher marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 803 sir walter raleigh, The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd 804 The Occasional Poem 805 martÍn espada, Litany at the Tomb of Frederick Douglass 806
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Martín Espada 807
The Carpe Diem Poem 807 john donne, The Flea 807 andrew marvell, To His Coy Mistress 808 The Aubade 809 john donne, The Sun Rising 810 james richardson, Late Aubade 811 Poems for Further Study 811 terrance hayes, Carp Poem 811 natasha trethewey, Pilgrimage 812
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xv i CoNTeNTS
mahmoud darwish, Identity Card 814 yehuda amichai, On Yom Kippur in 1967 . . . 816 yusef komunyakaa, Tu Do Street 817
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Yusef Komunyakaa 818
Homelands: An Album 821 maya angelou, Africa 821
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Maya Angelou 822
derek walcott, A Far Cry from Africa 822 AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Derek Walcott 824
judith ortiz cofer, The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica 825 cathy song, Heaven 826 agha shahid ali, Postcard from Kashmir 827 adrienne su, Escape from the Old Country 828
14 Theme and Tone 830 Tone 830 w. d. snodgrass, Leaving the Motel 831 Theme 832 maxine kumin, Woodchucks 832 adrienne rich, Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers 833
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Adrienne Rich 834
Theme and Conflict 834 adrienne su, On Writing 835
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Adrienne Su 836
Poems for Further Study 836 paul laurence dunbar, Sympathy 836 w. h. auden, Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone 837 kay ryan, Repulsive Theory 838 maya angelou, Still I Rise 838
SAMPLE WRITING: Response Paper on Auden’s “Stop all the clocks,
cut off the telephone” 841
Family: An Album 845 simon j. ortiz, My Father’s Song 845 robert hayden, Those Winter Sundays 846 ellen bryant voigt, My Mother 846 martín espada, Of the Threads That Connect the Stars 848 emily grosholz, Eden 848 philip larkin, This Be the Verse 849
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Philip Larkin 850
jimmy santiago baca, Green Chile 850
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CoNTeNTS xv ii
paul martínez pompa, The Abuelita Poem 851 charlie smith, The Business 852 andrew hudgins, Begotten 853
15 Language: Word Choice and Order 854 Precision and Ambiguity 854 sarah cleghorn, The golf links lie so near the mill 854 martha collins, Lies 855 Denotation and Connotation 855 walter de la mare, Slim Cunning Hands 856 theodore roethke, My Papa’s Waltz 857 Word Order and Placement 857 sharon olds, Sex without Love 859
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Sharon Olds 860
Poems for Further Study 860 william blake, London 860 gerard manley hopkins, Pied Beauty 861 william carlos williams, The Red Wheelbarrow 861 This Is Just to Say 862
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: William Carlos Williams 862
kay ryan, Blandeur 863 martha collins, white paper #24 864 a. e. stallings, Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda 865
16 Visual Imagery and Figures of Speech 866 david bottoms, Hubert Blankenship 867 claude mckay, The Harlem Dancer 868 lynn powell, Kind of Blue 868 Simile and Analogy 869 todd boss, My Love for You Is So Embarrassingly 869 Meta phor 870 william shakespeare, That time of year thou mayst in me
behold 870 linda pastan, Marks 871 Personification 871 emily dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death— 872 Metonymy and Synecdoche 872 william words worth, London, 1802 873 tracy k. smith, Ash 874 emma bolden, House Is an Enigma 874 Allusion 875 amit majmudar, Dothead 875 patricia lockwood, What Is the Zoo for What 876
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xv iii CoNTeNTS
Poems for Further Study 878 william shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to
a summer’s day? 878 anonymous, The Twenty- Third Psalm 878 john donne, Batter my heart, three- personed God 879 randall jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner 879 joy harjo, The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor
Window 880 john brehm, Sea of Faith 882
17 Symbol 884 The In ven ted Symbol 884 james dickey, The Leap 885 The Traditional Symbol 887 edmund waller, Song 887 dorothy parker, One Perfect Rose 888 The Symbolic Poem 889 william blake, The Sick Rose 889 Poems for Further Study 890 john keats, Ode to a Nightingale 890 robert frost, The Road Not Taken 892 howard nemerov, The Vacuum 893 adrienne rich, Diving into the Wreck 894 roo borson, After a Death 896 brian turner, Jundee Ameriki 896
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Brian Turner 897
sharon olds, Bruise Ghazal 898
18 The Sounds of Poetry 899 Rhyme 899 Other Sound Devices 901 alexander pope, from The Rape of the Lock 902 Sound Poems 903 helen chasin, The Word Plum 903 alexander pope, Sound and Sense 903 Poetic Meter 905 samuel taylor coleridge, Metrical Feet 907 anonymous, There was a young girl from St. Paul 910 alfred, lord tennyson, from The Charge of the Light Brigade 910 jane taylor, The Star 911 anne bradstreet, To My Dear and Loving Husband 911 jessie pope, The Call 912
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CoNTeNTS xix
wilfred owen, Dulce et Decorum Est 913 Poems for Further Study 914 william shakespeare, Like as the waves make towards
the pebbled shore 914 gerard manley hopkins, The Windhover 914 amit majmudar, Ode to a Drone 915 walt whitman, A Noiseless Patient Spider 915 kevin young, Ode to Pork 916
Word and Music: An Album 919 thomas campion, When to Her Lute Corinna Sings 920 anonymous, Sir Patrick Spens 920 dudley randall, Ballad of Birmingham 922 augustus montague toplady, A Prayer, Living and Dying 923 robert hayden, Homage to the Empress of the Blues 924 bob dylan, The Times They Are A- Changin’ 924 linda pastan, Listening to Bob Dylan, 2005 925 mos def, Hip Hop 926 jose b. gonzalez, Elvis in the Inner City 928
19 Internal Structure 930 Dividing Poems into “Parts” 930 pat mora, Sonrisas 930 Internal versus External or Formal “Parts” 932 galway kinnell, Blackberry Eating 932 Lyr ics as Internal Dramas 932 seamus heaney, Punishment 933 samuel taylor coleridge, Frost at Midnight 935 sharon olds, The Victims 937 Making Arguments about Structure 938 Poems without “Parts” 938 walt whitman, I Hear Amer i ca Singing 938 Poems for Further Study 939 william shakespeare, Th’ expense of spirit in a
waste of shame 939 percy bysshe shelley, Ode to the West Wind 940 philip larkin, Church Going 942
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Philip Larkin 944
katie ford, Still- Life 945 kevin young, Greening 945
SAMPLE WRITING: Essay in Pro gress on “Church Going” 947
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xx CoNTeNTS
20 External Form 951 Stanzas 951 Traditional Stanza Forms 951 robert frost, Acquainted with the Night 952 richard wilbur, Terza Rima 952 Traditional Verse Forms 953 Fixed Forms or Form- Based Subgenres 954 Traditional Forms: Poems for Further Study 955 dylan thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night 955 natasha trethewey, Myth 956 elizabeth bishop, Sestina 957 a. e. stallings, Sestina: Like 958 The Way a Poem Looks 959 e. e. cummings, l(a 959 Buffalo Bill’s 960 Concrete Poetry 960 george herbert, Easter Wings 961 may swenson, Women 962
The Sonnet: An Album 965 francesco petrarch, Upon the breeze she spread her
golden hair 966 henry constable, My lady’s presence makes the roses red 966 william shakespeare, My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun 967 Not marble, nor the gilded monuments 967 Let me not to the marriage of true minds 968 john milton, When I consider how my light is spent 968 william words worth, Nuns Fret Not 969 The world is too much with us 969 elizabeth barrett browning, How Do I Love Thee? 970 christina rossetti, In an Artist’s Studio 970 edna st. vincent millay, What lips my lips have kissed,
and where, and why 971 Women have loved before as I love now 971 I, being born a woman and distressed 972 I will put Chaos into fourteen lines 972 gwendolyn brooks, First Fight. Then Fiddle. 973 gwen harwood, In the Park 973 june jordan, Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Miracle Wheatley 974 billy collins, Sonnet 974 harryette mullen, Dim Lady 975
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CoNTeNTS xxi
Haiku: An Album 977 Traditional Japa nese Haiku 977 chiyojo, Whether astringent 977 bashō, A village without bells— 978 This road— 978 buson, Coolness— 978 Listening to the moon 978 One Haiku, Four Translations 978 lafcadio hearn, Old pond— 978 clara a. walsh, An old- time pond 978 earl miner, The still old pond 979 allen ginsberg, The old pond 979 Con temporary English- Language Haiku 979 ezra pound, In a Station of the Metro 979 allen ginsberg, Looking over my shoulder 979 richard wright, In the falling snow 979 etheridge knight, Eastern guard tower 980 The falling snow flakes 980 Making jazz swing in 980
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Etheridge Knight 980
mark jarman, Haiku 981 sonia sanchez, from 9 Haiku (for Freedom’s Sisters) 981 sue standing, Diamond Haiku 981 linda pastan, In the Har- Poen Tea Garden 982 Twaiku 983
EXPLORING CONTEXTS 984
21 The Author’s Work as Context: Adrienne Rich 986 The Poetry of Adrienne Rich 987 Poems by Adrienne Rich 990 At a Bach Concert 990 Storm Warnings 990 Living in Sin 991 Snapshots of a Daughter- in- Law 991
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Adrienne Rich 995
Planetarium 996 For the Rec ord 997 My mouth hovers across your breasts 998 History 998 Transparencies 999
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xx ii CoNTeNTS
To night No Poetry Will Serve 1000 Passages from Rich’s Essays 1001 From When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re- Vision 1001 From A Communal Poetry 1002 From Why I Refused the National Medal for the Arts 1003 From Poetry and the Forgotten Future 1006 A Poem for Adrienne Rich Joy HARJO, By the Way 1010
SAMPLE WRITING: Comparative Essay on Sonnets by Shakespeare
and Millay 1015
Emily Dickinson: An Album 1021 Poems by Emily Dickinson 1022 Wild Nights— Wild Nights! 1022 “Hope” is the thing with feathers— 1023 After great pain, a formal feeling comes— 1023 I heard a Fly buzz— when I died 1024 My Life had stood— a Loaded Gun— 1024 I stepped from Plank to Plank 1025 Tell all the truth but tell it slant— 1025 Poems about Emily Dickinson 1026 wendy cope, Emily Dickinson 1026 hart crane, To Emily Dickinson 1026 billy collins, Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes 1027
W. B. Yeats: An Album 1031 Poems by W. B. Yeats 1033 The Lake Isle of Innisfree 1033
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: W. B. Yeats 1034
All Things Can Tempt Me 1034 Easter 1916 1035 The Second Coming 1037 Leda and the Swan 1038 Sailing to Byzantium 1038 A Poem about W. B. Yeats 1040 w. h. auden, In Memory of W. B. Yeats 1040
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: W. H. Auden 1042
Pat Mora: An Album 1047 Elena 1048 Gentle Communion 1049
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Mothers and Daughters 1049 La Migra 1050 Ode to Adobe 1051
22 The Author’s Work as Context: William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience 1055 Color Insert: Facsimile Pages from Songs of Innocence and of Experience William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience Songs of Innocence 1057 Introduction 1057 The Ecchoing Green 1057 Holy Thursday 1058 The Lamb 1058 The Chimney Sweeper 1059 Songs of Experience 1059 Introduction 1059 The Tyger 1060 The Garden of Love 1061 The Chimney Sweeper 1061 Holy Thursday 1061
23 Cultural and Historical Contexts: The Harlem Renaissance 1065 Poems of the Harlem Re nais sance 1070 arna bontemps, A Black Man Talks of Reaping 1070 countee cullen, Yet Do I Marvel 1071 Saturday’s Child 1071 From the Dark Tower 1072 angelina grimkÉ, The Black Fin ger 1072 Tenebris 1073 langston hughes, Harlem 1073 The Weary Blues 1073 The Negro Speaks of Rivers 1074 I, Too 1075 helene johnson, Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 1076 claude mckay, Harlem Shadows 1076 If We Must Die 1077 The Tropics in New York 1077 Amer i ca 1077 The White House 1078 Contextual Excerpts 1078 james weldon johnson, from the preface to The Book of American
Negro Poetry 1078
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xx iv CoNTeNTS
alain locke, from The New Negro 1080 rudolph fisher, from The Caucasian Storms Harlem 1084 w. e. b. du bois, from Two Novels 1088 zora neale hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me 1089 langston hughes, from The Big Sea 1092
SAMPLE WRITING: Research Essay on “I, Too” 1097
24 Critical Contexts: Sylvia Plath’s “ Daddy” 1102 sylvia plath, Daddy 1103 Critical Excerpts 1107 george steiner, from Dying Is an Art 1107 a. alvarez, from Sylvia Plath 1110 irving howe, from The Plath Cele bration: A Partial Dissent 1111 judith kroll, from Rituals of Exorcism: “Daddy” 1113 mary lynn broe, from Protean Poetic: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath 1114 margaret homans, from A Feminine Tradition 1116 pamela j. annas, from A Disturbance in Mirrors: The Poetry of
Sylvia Plath 1117 steven gould axelrod, from Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the
Cure of Words 1119 lisa narbeshuber, from The Poetics of Torture: The Spectacle of
Sylvia Plath’s Poetry 1125
READING MORE POETRY 1131 w. h. auden, Musée des Beaux Arts 1131 robert browning, My Last Duchess 1132 kelly cherry, Alzheimer’s 1133 samuel taylor coleridge, Kubla Khan 1134 e. e. cummings, in Just- 1135 john donne, Death, be not proud 1136 The Good- Morrow 1137 Song 1137 A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 1138 paul laurence dunbar, We Wear the Mask 1139 t. s. eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 1139 robert frost, Fire and Ice 1143 Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eve ning 1143 seamus heaney, Digging 1144 gerard manley hopkins, God’s Grandeur 1145 Spring and Fall 1145 ben jonson, On My First Son 1146
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john keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn 1146 To Autumn 1148 yusef komunyakaa, Facing It 1149
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Yusef Komunyakaa 1150
linda pastan, To a Daughter Leaving Home 1151 marge piercy, Barbie Doll 1151 sylvia plath, Lady Lazarus 1152 Morning Song 1154 edgar allan poe, The Raven 1155 ezra pound, The River- Merchant’s Wife: A Letter 1157 christina rossetti, Goblin Market 1158 wallace stevens, Anecdote of the Jar 1171 The Emperor of Ice- Cream 1172 alfred, lord tennyson, Ulysses 1172 walt whitman, Facing West from California’s Shores 1174 richard wilbur, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World 1174 Biographical Sketches: Poets 1176
PART THREE Drama 25 Drama: Reading, Responding, Writing 1194
Reading Drama 1194 Thinking Theatrically 1196 susan glaspell, Trifles 1197 Responding to Drama 1208
SAMPLE WRITING: Annotation of Trifles 1208
SAMPLE WRITING: Reading Notes on Trifles 1211
Writing about Drama 1214 SAMPLE WRITING: Response Paper on Trifles 1216
SAMPLE WRITING: Essay on Trifles 1218
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT 1221
26 Ele ments of Drama 1221 Character 1221 Plot and Structure 1223 Stages, Sets, and Setting 1225 Tone, Language, and Symbol 1228 Theme 1229 august wilson, Fences 1230
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: August Wilson 1282
quiara alegría hudes, Water by the Spoonful 1283
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xxv i Contents
EXPLORING CONTEXTS 1332
27 The Author’s Work as Context: William Shakespeare 1332 The Life of Shakespeare: A Biographical Mystery 1332 Exploring Shakespeare’s Work: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
and Hamlet 1334 A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1338 Hamlet 1396
28 Cultural and Historical Contexts: Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun 1496 The Historical Significance of A Raisin in the Sun 1497 The Great Migration 1498 Life in the “Black Metropolis” 1499 The Civil Rights Movement 1503 African Americans and Africa 1504 The “Americanness” of A Raisin in the Sun 1505 lorraine hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun 1506
AUTHORS ON THEIR WORK: Lorraine Hansberry 1570
Contextual Excerpts 1573 richard wright, from Twelve Million Black Voices . . . 1573 robert gruenberg, from Chicago Fiddles While Trumbull
Park Burns 1577 gertrude samuels, from Even More Crucial Than in the
South 1579 wilma dykeman and james stokely, from New Southerner:
The Middle- Class Negro 1582 martin luther king, jr., from Letter from Birmingham Jail 1584 robert c. weaver, from “The Negro as an American”: The Yearning
for Human Dignity 1586 earl e. thorpe, from Africa in the Thought of Negro
Americans 1590 phaon goldman, from The Significance of African Freedom for the
Negro American 1592 bruce norris, from Clybourne Park 1594
29 Critical Contexts: Sophocles’s Antigone 1600 Sophocles, Antigone 1602 Critical Excerpts 1635 richard c. jebb, from the introduction to The Antigone of
Sophocles 1635 maurice bowra, from Sophoclean Tragedy 1636 bernard knox, from the introduction to Antigone (1982) 1638
selection is not included for permissions reasons.
selection is not included for permissions reasons.
CoNTeNTS xxv ii
martha C. nussbaum, from Sophocles’ Antigone: Conflict, Vision, and Simplification 1645
philip holt, from Polis and Tragedy in the Antigone 1650 SAMPLE WRITING: Research Essay on Antigone 1660
READING MORE DRAMA 1665 anton chekhov, The Cherry Orchard 1665 henrik ibsen, A Doll House 1703 Jane martin, from Talking With . . . 1753 sophocles, Oedipus the King 1758 oscar wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest 1798 tennessee williams, A Streetcar Named Desire 1843
PART FOUR Writing about Lit er a ture 30 Basic Moves: Paraphrase, Summary, and Description 1914
31 The Lit er a ture Essay 1918
32 The Writing Process 1938
33 The Lit er a ture Research Essay 1951
34 Quotation, Citation, and Documentation 1962
35 Sample Research Essay 1992 sarah roberts, “ ‘Only a Girl’? Gendered Initiation in Alice Munro’s
‘Boys and Girls’ ” 1992
Critical Approaches A1
Permissions Acknowl edgments A27
Index of Authors A45
Index of Titles and First Lines A52
Glossary/Index of Literary Terms A61
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Preface for Instructors
L ike its pre de ces sors, this Thirteenth edition of The Norton Introduction to Literature offers in a single volume a complete course in reading literature and writing about it. A teaching anthology focused on the actual tasks, challenges, and questions typically faced by students and instructors, The Norton Introduction to Literature offers practical advice to help students transform their first impressions of literary works into fruitful discussions and meaningful critical essays, and it helps students and instructors together tackle the complex questions at the heart of literary study.
The Norton Introduction to Literature has been revised with an eye to providing a book that is as flexible and as useful as possible—adaptable to many different teaching styles and individual preferences—and that also conveys the excitement at the heart of literature itself.
NEW TO THE THIRTEENTH EDITION
Thirty- three new se lections
This lucky Thirteenth edition of The Norton Introduction to Lit er a ture features nine new stories, over twenty new poems, and one new play. These include new se lections from popu lar and canonical writers including Ray Bradbury, octavia Butler, Annie Proulx, oscar Wilde, and Virginia Woolf (in Fiction and Drama), Maya Angelou, emily Dickinson, Joy Harjo, and Claude McKay (in Poetry). We invite you to feast on Christina Rossetti’s delicious Goblin Market and a refreshed collection of Robert Frost poems complete with the oft- taught “out, out—” and “Fire and Ice.” But you will also find here work by exciting new authors such as Alissa Nutting, A. e. Stallings, and Pulitzer Prize winners Adam Johnson, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Tracy K. Smith. Prompting the re introduction of John Crowe Ransom’s “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter,” which it appears alongside, Hai- Dang Phan’s moving “My Father’s ‘Norton Introduction to Lit er a ture,’ Third edition (1981)” reminds us just how much new works and new voices renew and reanimate, rather than replace, classic ones.
A new science- fiction album
one of the more popu lar features of recent editions of The Norton Introduction to Lit er a ture are the albums that invite students to consider and compare works linked by author, subgenre, subject matter, or setting, and so on. You will find fifteen such albums in the Thirteenth edition, including an entirely new one featuring science fiction by octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, and Jennifer egan.
Improved writing pedagogy
Recent editions of The Norton Introduction to Lit er a ture greatly expanded and improved the resources for student writers, including thorough introductions to each
xxviii
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genre, broadened online materials, and new student writing. The Thirteenth edition offers an enlarged and revamped chapter on “Quotation, Citation, and Documenta- tion.” In keeping with the latest (8th edition) MLA guidelines, it explains the ele ments that comprise the works- cited entry and the princi ples by which any entry is assem- bled rather than presenting a dizzying menu of entry types for student writers to pore through and copy. Here, as throughout “Writing about Lit er a ture,” we demonstrate with brief examples, often drawn from the work of student or professional writers. A new student essay on Ralph ellison’s “King of the Bingo Game” brings the total of complete writing samples to nineteen, including notes, response papers, essays ana- lyzing one work or comparing several, and research essays exploring critical and/or historical contexts. As always, by including more and more lengthy extracts from pub- lished literary criticism than any other textbook of its kind, The Norton Introduction to Lit er a ture offers student writers both a trove of sources to draw on in articulating their own responses to par tic u lar works and models of the sorts of questions, strate- gies, and “moves” that power effective reading and writing about lit er a ture.
A new design and expanded photo program
A con temporary new design invites greater enjoyment and even greater use of the book’s many special features. The photo program has been enriched and expanded with new author photos throughout as well as contextual illustrations, such as the frontispiece for the first edition of Goblin Market by the poet’s brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an advertising poster for Buffalo Bill alongside the poem by e. e. Cum- mings, a movie still from The Black Panther to accompany the new Futures album, and many more.
Enhanced and updated Shakespeare
To make Shakespeare more accessible and enjoyable, every page of Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream features new in-line glossing of challenging words or allusions. The versions of both plays are adopted from the acclaimed new third edi- tion of The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt. In addition, students encountering Shakespeare for the first time will appreciate the rich links, videos, and recordings available within the ebook.
New combined glossary and index
A new combined Glossary and Index makes it easier for students to review key liter- ary terms and find examples within the book.
Unmatched support for students, with new close reading workshops
New to our popu lar LitWeb site are twenty- five Close Reading Workshops. Providing step- by- step guidance in literary analy sis and interpretation drawing on works in the anthology, many of which are enhanced with audio, these interactive workshops help students learn how to observe, contextualize, analyze, and create an argument based on a close reading of text. The workshops are easily assignable with class reports that allow you to see how students’ close reading skills improve over the course of the semester.
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Unmatched support for instructors
The new Interactive Instructor’s Guide by Jason Snart features hundreds of teach- ing resources in one searchable, sortable site to help you enrich your classes and save course- prep time, including:
- Teaching notes, discussion questions, suggestions for writing, and in- class activities for every work in the anthology
- Hundreds of downloadable images for in- class pre sen ta tion - The Writing about Lit er a ture video series - Lecture Power Points for the most- taught works in the anthology
HALLMARK FEATURES OF THE NORTON INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE
Although this Thirteenth edition contains much that is new or refashioned, the essential features of the text have remained consistent over many editions:
Diverse selections with broad appeal
Because readings are the central component of any literature class, my most important task has been to select a rich array of appealing and challenging literary works. Among the 61 stories, 300 poems, and 12 plays in The Norton Introduction to Literature, readers will find selections by well- established and emerging voices alike, representing a broad range of times, places, cultural perspectives, and styles. The readings are excitingly diverse in terms of subject and style as well as author- ship and national origin. In selecting and presenting literary texts, my top priorities continue to be quality as well as pedagogical relevance and usefulness. I have inte- grated the new with the old and the experimental with the canonical, believing that contrast and variety help students recognize and respond to the unique fea- tures of any literary work. In this way, I aim to help students and instructors alike approach the unfamiliar by way of the familiar (and vice versa).
Helpful and unobtrusive editorial matter
As always, the instructional material before and after each selection avoids dictat- ing any par tic u lar interpretation or response, instead highlighting essential terms and concepts in order to make the literature that follows more accessible to student readers. Questions and writing suggestions help readers apply general concepts to specific readings in order to develop, articulate, refine, and defend their own responses. As in all Norton anthologies, I have annotated the works with a light hand, seeking to be informative but not interpretive.
An introduction to the study of literature
To introduce students to fiction, poetry, and drama is to open up a complex field of study with a long history. The Introduction addresses many of the questions that students may have about the nature of literature as well as the practice of literary criticism. By exploring some of the most compelling reasons for reading and writ- ing about literature, much of the mystery about matters of method is cleared away,
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and I provide motivated students with a sense of the issues and opportunities that lie ahead as they study literature. As in earlier editions, I encourage student engage- ment with individual authors and their perspectives in “Authors on Their Work” features as well as single- author chapters and albums.
Thoughtful guidance for writing about literature
The Thirteenth edition integrates opportunities for student writing at each step of the course, highlighting the mastery of skills for students at every level. “Reading, Responding, Writing” chapters at the beginning of each genre unit offer students concrete advice about how to transform careful reading into productive and insight- ful writing. Sample questions for each work or about each element (e.g., “Questions about Character”) provide exercises for answering these questions or for applying new concepts to par tic u lar works, and examples of student writing demonstrate how a student’s notes on a story or poem may be developed into a response paper or an or ga nized critical argument. New examples of student writing bring the total number to nineteen.
The constructive, step- by- step approach to the writing pro cess is thoroughly demonstrated in the “Writing about Literature” section. As in the chapters intro- ducing concepts and literary selections, the first steps presented in the writing sec- tion are simple and straightforward, outlining the basic formal elements common to essays—thesis, structure, and so on. Following these steps encourages students to approach the essay both as a distinctive genre with its own elements and as an accessible form of writing with a clear purpose. From here, I walk students through the writing pro cess: how to choose a topic, gather evidence, and develop an argu- ment; the methods of writing a research essay; and the mechanics of effective quotation and responsible citation and documentation. Also featured is a sample research essay that has been annotated to call attention to important features of good student writing.
even more resources for student writers are available at the free student web- site, LitWeb, described below.
A comprehensive approach to the contexts of literature
The Thirteenth edition not only offers expanded resources for interpreting and writing about literature but also extends the perspectives from which students can view par tic u lar authors and works. one of the greatest strengths of The Norton Introduction to Literature has been its exploration of the relation between literary texts and a variety of contexts. “Author’s Work as Context,” “Cultural and Historical Contexts,” and “Critical Contexts” chapters serve as mini- casebooks containing a wealth of material for in- depth, context- focused reading and writing assignments.
The “Critical Approaches” section provides an overview of contemporary criti- cal theory and its terminology and is useful as an introduction, a refresher, or a preparation for further exploration.
A sensible and teachable or ga ni za tion
The accessible format of The Norton Introduction to Literature, which has worked so well for teachers and students for many editions, remains the same. each genre is approached in three logical steps. Fiction, for example, is introduced by the chapter
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xxx ii PReFACe FoR INSTRUCToRS
“Fiction: Reading, Responding, Writing,” which treats the purpose and nature of fic- tion, the reading experience, and the steps one takes to begin writing about fiction. This feature is followed by the six- chapter section called “Understanding the Text,” which concentrates on the genre’s key elements. Appearing throughout are albums that build on the chapters they follow, inviting students to compare stories narrated by protagonists whom others deem monsters, featuring initiation plots or futuristic settings, and so on. The third section, “exploring Contexts” suggests ways to embrace a work of literature by considering various literary, temporal, and cultural contexts. “Reading More Fiction,” the final component in the Fiction section, is a reservoir of additional readings for in de pen dent study or a different approach. The Poetry and Drama sections, in turn, follow exactly the same or gan i za tional format as Fiction.
The book’s arrangement allows movement from narrower to broader frameworks, from simpler to more complex questions and issues, and mirrors the way people read— wanting to learn more as they experience more. At the same time, I have worked hard to ensure that no section, chapter, or album depends on any other, allowing individual teachers to pick and choose which to assign and in what order.
Deep repre sen ta tion of select authors
The Norton Introduction to Lit er a ture offers a range of opportunities for in- depth study of noted authors. “Author’s Work” chapters and albums—on Flannery o’Connor, Adrienne Rich, William Blake, emily Dickinson, Pat Mora, W. B. Yeats, and William Shakespeare— encourage students to make substantive connections among works from dif fer ent phases of a writer’s career, guiding them to ask both what binds such works together into a distinctive oeuvre and how a writer’s approach and outlook evolves in and over time. But throughout the volume, students will encounter, too, at least two works each by a diverse array of other authors including William Faulkner, Tim o’Brien, Joy Harjo, Judith ortiz Cofer, Tracy K. Smith, and the fifty- three other poets whose biographies appear at the end of the Poetry section. “Critical Contexts” chapters on “The Things They Carried” (and The Things They Carried), on “ Daddy,” and on Antigone encourage students to delve deeper into specific works by Tim o’Brien, Sylvia Plath, and Sophocles by considering the rich and varied commentary, even controversy, those authors’ works have inspired. “Cultural and Historical Context” chapters— featuring stories by Susan Glaspell, Charlotte Per- kins Gilman, and Kate Chopin; poetry and prose of the Harlem Re nais sance; and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun— remind students that authors and their works also both emerge out of and shape the contours and controversies of par tic u lar moments and milieus, even as they speak to ours.
AC KNOW LEDG MENTS
In working on this book, I have been guided by teachers and students in my own and other en glish departments who have used this textbook and responded with comments and suggestions. Thanks to such capable help, I am hopeful that this book will continue to offer a solid and stimulating introduction to the experience of literature.
This project continually reminds me why I follow the vocation of teaching litera- ture, which after all is a communal rather than a solitary calling. Since its incep- tion, The Norton Introduction to Literature has been very much a collaborative effort.
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I am grateful for the opportunity to carry on the work begun by the late Carl Bain and Jerome Beaty, whose student I will always be. And I am equally indebted to my wonderful former co-editors Paul Hunter and Alison Booth. Their wisdom and intel- ligence have had a profound effect on me, and their stamp will endure on this and all future editions of this book. I am thankful to Alison especially for the erudition, savvy, grace, and humor she brought to our partnership. Their intelligence, erudition, grace, and humor have had a profound effect on me, and their stamp will endure on this and all future editions of this book.
So, too, will that of Spencer Richardson- Jones, my Norton editorial partner on the last two (eleventh and twelfth) editions. For the wisdom and wit he brought to that partnership, for the all- new life he breathed into this book, and for his laser- like atten- tion to— and indefatigable championship of—it, I am forever grateful. The book’s new in- house editor, Sarah Touborg, has proved a worthy successor under much less than ideal circumstances. And I am thankful—as I think all users of the Thirteenth edi- tion will be— for the new perspective and insight she has brought to this proj ect. With admirable skill and great energy, assistant editor Madeline Rombes managed myriad manuscript details. I am grateful to proj ect editor Christine D’Antonio and copy- editor Rebecca Caine, photo editor Ted Szczepanski and researcher Julie Tesser, production man ag ers Ashley Horna and Stephen Sajdak, and media editor Carly Frasier Doria who brought together the innovative array of web resources and other pedagogical tools. Huge, heartfelt thanks, too, to Kimberly Bowers, the very best, brightest, and most tireless of marketing man ag ers.